Founding Story |
Brittany MerrillAt age 19, Brittany Merrill spent the summer of 2004 teaching at a boarding school on the border of Congo and Uganda. She spent the first two weeks working in the slums of Kampala where she was led to a small house by a local Pastor to meet a member of his congregation. There she was introduced to Sarah, a dedicated woman with a moving faith. Sarah was not much older than Brittany at the time, but she lived her life with meaning and purpose as she sacrificed everything she had to care for twenty-four children who slept on the floor of her home. In 2006, Brittany founded the Ugandan American Partnership Organization (The UAPO) to partner with Sarah to build an orphanage home for her growing ministry. Since that time, The UAPO has initiated five development projects across Uganda including the building of two orphanage homes with the capacity to house over 200 needy children and drilled over 20 clean water wells. |
Alice DramundruThe Akola project began in the village of Buwala, Uganda in 2007 by a woman named Alice Dramundru who had lost her husband to AIDS related complications. Upon discovering that she had not contracted HIV, Alice pledged to dedicate the rest of her life to serving women and children in need. A widow herself, Alice knew the great responsibility and hardships that women in Uganda faced. Alice went on to receive a scholarship to attend a vocational training school in Uganda and learned how to make a variety of crafts, including the paper necklaces of the Akola project. In 2007, Alice partnered with UAPO to start the Akola project to train other Ugandan women to make crafts to be sold in the US and local Ugandan markets. Since 2007, over 200 Ugandan women have been empowered by the Akola Project and have generated over $250,000 to provide for their families and communities. |
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